


Thinking Outside the Box

by autobotscoutriella



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Got Volunteered
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24434308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autobotscoutriella/pseuds/autobotscoutriella
Summary: While assigned to a job she didn't ask for and didn't want, Moonracer makes a friend.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12
Collections: FandomWeekly (2019-2020) Writing Challenge on Dreamwidth





	Thinking Outside the Box

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the [FandomWeekly](https://fandomweekly.dreamwidth.org/326827.html) for the prompt "Voluntold".

Moonracer's shoulders slumped as she stared at the room full of small crates, each stack higher and more intricate than the last. "I can't believe you're making me do the supply sorting for a whole week. I mean, come on, it's the most boring job in the world."

"You volunteered," Chromia said, far too cheerfully for someone awake at 0400.

"I didn't volunteer," Moonracer protested. "You told me I had to. It's not volunteering if you got an order—"

"Rule is, she who oversleeps and misses the scheduled briefing volunteers for the week's supply runs. Thus, consider yourself volunteered."

"More like volun _told_. Come on, Chromia, a whole week? Really? I'm going to lose my mind before it's all done." Moonracer heaved a dramatic sigh. "Isn't there some law against unusually cruel punishments?"

"None that I'm aware of." Chromia's EM field became even sunnier. "All's fair in training good soldiers."

"I _am_ trained." Moonracer huffed and started sorting through crates. "I went through boot camp and everything! I'm not going to learn anything new from sorting supplies that I didn't learn in sniper training. Besides, Lancer overslept last week and _she_ didn't do the supply sorting all week. Why do I have to?"

"Lancer didn't miss a briefing, she missed ten minutes of breakfast." Chromia beamed. "If you want to oversleep and have to sprint for your morning energon, that's on you. If you oversleep and aren't on-time for the mission-critical briefing, that's a problem."

Moonracer set down a crate and stared despairingly at the towers, which seemed to loom larger with every passing moment. "Can't I just drive laps?"

"You love driving laps," Chromia pointed out. "Don't forget you have a watch shift at 0530."

The door slid closed, and Moonracer groaned again before grabbing an oversized crate and struggling to lift it. "Whyyyyy."

"You need a hand with that?"

Moonracer squeaked in surprise and let go of the crate. A towering red and gold flightframe loomed over her, brilliant blue optics wide with concern. "Sorry, kid—didn't mean to scare you. Let me get that for you." Before Moonracer could comment, the flightframe swept the crate up one-handed and gestured toward the back of the room. "I've got stuff all sorted out back here. You must be the new volunteer."

"I didn't—" Moonracer struggled with another crate, gave up, and followed the new arrival empty-handed. "It wasn't my idea. I got volunteered when I wasn't there, because I guess that's what happens when you oversleep."

"Ohhhh, you got voluntold too, huh? Guess I should have known when Chromia sounded thrilled to tell me there was a volunteer on the way." The flightframe set the crate carefully down next to a stack of similarly-sized ones. "I'm Firestar. So you overslept, huh?"

"Yeah." Moonracer glumly started hauling one of the smaller crates off its delivery rack and over to the stacks. "I'm Moonracer. Nice to meet you. What'd you do?"

"Oh, I actually did volunteer. I like doing it every once in a while—at least once a week." Firestar pointed at a different, shorter stack. "That one goes over there, it's replacement cabling for the external force-fields."

Moonracer moved the crate, as directed. "You _like_ doing this? No offense, but are you crazy?"

Firestar laughed. "Not anymore than any of the rest of us. I work in tactics under Commander Elita, and I like to keep an optic on what we have in supplies and what's coming in. You never know what might be the key to solving some sort of problem."

"Really?" Moonracer tried to lift a deceptively small crate, and grunted when it turned out far heavier than she had expected. "What—oof!—what kind of problem?"

"Well, take that box you're hauling." Firestar offered a supporting hand. "That is highly concentrated fuel-grade energon—so don't drop it, please—and the fact that we have six boxes of that in this supply drop means we have more options for direct combat. If we didn't have that, I'd be looking to see if we had enough surplus elsewhere to process some of our fuel for weaponry, and if we needed it I'd also be looking for spare parts we could build a specialized processing unit from."

"You can build a specialized processing unit?" Moonracer wobbled over to the appropriate stack and set the box down with a slight thud. "I wouldn't even know where to start. Are you an engineer? Where did you learn?"

"I'm not an engineer, but I picked up a few things before the war. I can't build it myself, but I know what it takes to build." Firestar adjusted the box on top of the stack. "Come on. Let's start from the other end, and I'll show you what we can do with each section."

"You make it sound like it's going to be fun. Supply sorting isn't fun." But Moonracer followed Firestar toward the other end of the room anyway. "How are you so excited about this?"

"You've never sorted supplies like this before." Firestar winked, EM field rippling with genuine amusement. "You've just got to learn to think outside the box. Now come on. Those two crates are medical supplies, and _that's_ something you definitely want to track."


End file.
